Tonight was my last class of the course I’m teaching this semester. On my drive home from campus I was a little sad, because I know that I’ll not see any of my students again1! Despite having a class of 90 students, I actually got to know a fair number of them through in class discussion and chats on the break and after class.

The class is an intro to business concepts for students in food, nutrition, & health majors. The major assignment is writing a business plan together and we spent the last two classes having student presentations – which are Dragons’ Den style pitches where the students pretend they are pitching their business plans to room full of investors. Like last year, I was blown away by the creativity of both their business ideas and by their presentations, by the tough questions the students asked each other, and how much work and thought had gone into these projects, as evidenced by how well they dealt with those tough questions.

While I will definitely miss the students, I won’t be sad about getting my Tuesday nights back. And my Monday nights (when I did class prep). And my weekends (when I also did class prep). Teaching a class is a freaking lot of work. Well, once the marking gets wrapped up, that is.

The trials and tribulations of being a sessional instructor who only teaches this one, fourth year course in that Faculty. [↩]

So I have a new hockey team this season – we are called the Penguins! On this team, they have a tradition. The player of the game is awarded a Sidney Crosby stuffy, which they get to keep until the next game. And during that time they must take Sidney on an adventure, which they must photograph and send to the team. Apparently Sidney has gone on a variety of adventures – he’s gone mountain biking, he’s gone to the spa, he’s played dress up, he’s gone for an acupuncture treatment, and so on.

Well, as luck would have it, I was awarded this great honour in my second game on the team, which we played this past Sunday. The honour was bestowed upon me for scoring a goal with just 4 seconds left in the game. The goal was one for the highlight reel – a beautiful wrist shot, top shelf! Or perhaps I just skated up to the goalie, who quite possibly wasn’t expecting anything to actual happen in the last 4 seconds of the game, took a shot right at her which she easily stopped, but it fell between her knees and then when I kept skating towards her hoping to poke at the rebound, she fell over backwards and knocked the puck into her own net. It could have been either of these things, really. I guess we’ll never know! At any rate, my teammate kindly named me player of the game for my never-give-up attitude and making the other team’s goalie, who was quite spectacular all game, look silly. And so it was that I brought this hottie home with me:

Watson and Crick smelled him for an unusually long time (They smell pretty much everything I bring into the condo, but usually it’s a few sniffs and they are on their way. But the each spent several minutes smelly every inch of this guy!)

Now, I only had a few days in which to adventure with Sid, as our next game, when I had to pass him along to the next player of the game, was tonight (Wednesday). So I really only had Monday and Tuesday and I was working those days, plus I am teaching a class at UBC on Tuesday nights this semester. So Sidney ended up having a very nerdy adventure. He came to work with me (I actually had him at the table during our team meeting1 and one of my team members was like “He’s staring at me!!”):

And then on Tuesday night, he helped me give my lecture on business strategy and marketing:

Students cut out of the photo to protect privacy! But I wanted a photo with students in it to prove that I didn’t just take him to a lecture hall and pretend to have him in my class!

And finally, we ended our hard day’s work with a fine beer from Steel & Oak:

As usual, I have so many things I’d like to blog about and so little time, mostly because all of the aforementioned things taking up all of my time1. So, in the interest of getting all these things out of my brain, I give you this brain dump in the form of a bulleted list:

After a year and a half, all the hard work of the organizing committee (of which I was a member as a program co-chair) led to a highly successful Canadian Evaluation Society conference at the start of May. I’ll be writing up more specifics on the conference content on my other blog2, but I do have to say that I am so happy that the conference was extremely well attended and everything went off without a hitch. And also that I’m relieved to have a lot fewer meetings in my calendar going forward!

The week before the conference my team and I had to make a surprise move to a temporary new office space3. It’s just four blocks from my old office space, but it’s surprising how many new restaurants there are to discover that I never realized were so close by4! Also, one of my coworkers brought a breakfast sandwich maker to the new office and now I live in heaven.

The temporary new space in which I’m working lacks a phone, so work is getting me a Blackberry. So now I live in 2006. Even more sadly, Pokémon Go is not available on BB (at least not in a very functional state from what I’ve read) (or else I’d be able to double my productivity when it comes to evolution binges when I have a Lucky Egg!).

Speaking of Pokémon, I have caught all of the Pokémon from the initial release in Pokémon Go that are available to catch in North America, plus the Australia-specific one5 + all the babies. The last of the originals that I caught was the one I wanted the most: this Flying Spaghetti Monster Pokémon:

Of course, before I caught all the originals, Niantic released a bunch more Pokémon, so I still haven’t caught them all! I have caught a fair number, including this tree:
This communist6 teddy bear: and this thing that really needs to pee (both male and female editions. You can tell she’s a girl because she’s wearing lipstick)

And one more thing about Pokémon. Among the new group of Pokémon that were release, there were two that allowed me to test the question of “If there were a Pokemon that looked like a spider, would my fear of spiders or my love of catching Pokémon win?” Given that I’ve caught 151 Spinaraks and 15 Ariados, I think I have my answer.

I took a sewing class with Cath and Stephanie as my thing that I learned in April (towards my goal of learning 12 new things this year). There’s a whole blog posting on that which I have partway written, so stay tuned! I’ve also learned something new in May, so that will be another blog post!

I’m co-teaching a class in the summer intersession (read: a 12 week course that’s taught in 6 weeks, so I’m extra glad to be co-teaching it!). I don’t really have anything to say about it, but it’s taking up a bunch of my time, so I thought I should probably include it in this laundry list of random things.

I’m still loving Strong Side! I’ve just started my third program. The first program was 5 weeks of building a foundation, then there was 5 weeks of hypertrophy (i.e., building muscle), and my new program is 5 weeks of intensity that is probably going to kill me. I’ve only done the instructional week, where the trainers teach you all the exercises in your new program, but you don’t have to do nearly as many sets as the following four weeks. Thursday is my first day on my own for this program where I will have to do eleventy billion sets of all kinds of things that will surely make me exhausted. But I can really see some significant improvements in strength since I started going there, so I’m going to trust the program!

There was a provincial election in BC on May 9 and it ended up in a hung parliament. The BC “Liberals” (which I put in scare quotes because the party that goes by the name “BC Liberals” are not liberal at all – they are conservative) won, on the initial counting of the ballots on election night, 43 seats in the legislature m, which is one seat shy of a majority. However, there are more than 170,000 absentee ballots that weren’t counted on election night and some ridings had very slim margins that could easily flip based on absentee ballots – including one riding where the NDP won by just 9 votes! They’ve started the count of the absentee ballots and the NDP are now up by 101 votes in that riding, but there are still more that have to be counted tomorrow, so it’s still possible that the “Liberals” could win that one. If that flips to the BC “Liberals” and none of the other ridings change hands, there will be a majority government and things will continue on as they were before the election, but with fewer MLAs in the ruling party7. But if everything stays the same as the election night results, or if seats flip to the NDP, we could end up with BC “Liberal” minority or, if more seats flip to the NDP, we could end up with an NDP minority, and in either minority scenario, the Green Party holds the balance of power. Needless to say, we’ll be waiting with baited breath for those absentee ballots to be counted!

In fact, as I’ve sat down to take these notes from my phone, where I’ve been writing this blog posting in bits and pieces on my Skytrain commute, I noticed that I haven’t posted anything March 31 and it’s somehow the end of May now!! [↩]

I actually have two offices and to clarify, this is for my non-hospital office. [↩]

I bring my lunch to work most days, so it will take me awhile to try all the ones I want to try [↩]

I caught the kangaroo one that you can only catch in Australia when I was there last fall. I did not catch the Asian one when I was in Hong Kong (due to not having a data plan and there being very limited free wifi around) and I haven’t been to Europe since Pokémon Go started. Clearly I need to book a European vacation! [↩]

I keep calling that bear a communist because the crescent on his reminds me of the sickle on the Soviet flag. Scott thinks it’s more of a Turkish teddy bear. [↩]

Unless a BC Liberal MLA dies, crosses the floor, or resigns due to a scandal, and a riding is subsequently lost in a by-election. [↩]

Tonight was the last class of the course I’m teaching this semester. Since it was my first time teaching this class, it was a crazy amount of work and I am so, so, so, so, so, so tired. But I have to say that I really enjoyed teaching this class! The material leant itself well to active learning – though I definitely want to increase the amount of activities and decrease the amount of me-as-a-talking-head even more next year. The students did their class presentations this week and last and they were excellent – they really went above and beyond to produce some stellar work. A few students stayed behind after class to chat with me – they said that they agreed that more in-class activities would be better and even had some ideas for possible activities. And they said that they got a lot out of the class, as it was so different from any of their other classes, and that they found the little extras (like stories I told that brought the concepts into real life situations and videos I shared that touched on the concepts we were learning) really added some depth to the class, and that they really appreciated the work I’d put into it. That’s the kind of feedback that puts a smile on this very tired instructor’s face!

It’s September, which means the start of the school year is upon us. This is, of course, rather meaningless if you aren’t a student, a parent of a student, or some sort of instructor… Now, don’t worry, I haven’t enrolled in any new degree programs1. But I have picked up a new teaching gig.

As you know, I teach an online stats class at the Justice Institute, but that is offered in the January semester. I haven’t taught a face-to-face class since before I started my MBA and, honestly, I’ve been missing the in-person interaction with the students2. I really enjoy working with students – it’s so rewarding to be able to help them learn new things, to see the moment when a new concept or skill just “clicks” for them, when they start to connect what they are learning in class with things in their other classes or their work, and I always learn new things from my students too. So when the opportunity to teach a class that is in my exact area of expertise came up for this semester, I jumped on it!

As you also may know, I have three different alma maters3 and I’ve taught at two different post-secondary institutions4. But now I’m adding yet another school to my repertoire, as the university I’ll be teaching at starting next week is Simon Fraser University. Now, you may recall that a few years back I got an Adjunct Prof title at SFU. In that capacity I’d done some grant writing with a colleague and supervised some practicum students, but this has been my first opportunity to teach a course5. And I’m pretty stoked about it.

So now the number of post-secondary institutions where I’ve taught has caught up with the number that I have degrees from! I know some academics who are academically monogamous (*cough* Dr. Dan *cough*), but apparently I am academically promiscuous.

Anyway, writing this blog posting has been a wee bit of a break from preparing my slides for next week’s class, but I really should get back to that! In the meantime, check out this adorable image that I found while looking for Creative Commons licensed or royalty-free images to put on my slides6!

This is the first time that they’ve needed an instructor in a class that I have expertise in where the class wasn’t during the day. I can only teach night classes, since my day job is, well, a day job. [↩]

For the record, the slide on which I’ll be putting this image is during the part of my class where I’m talking about group work and, in particular, the importance of having someone be a devil’s advocate, so you don’t get stuck in groupthink! [↩]

Spent the weekend on the Island, as my friend Rachel invited me to give a guest lecture on stats in her research methods class1.

On the ferry on the way over to the Island on Friday night I was pleasantly surprised to run into my friend Bronwyn, who I haven’t seen since graduation back in May. It was awesome having a chance to catch up with her and the ferry ride was over in a flash!

Friday night, we just chilled, as Rachel had been teaching prior to picking me up from the ferry and we had to get up the next morning to teach. Teaching was fun, as I’m a nerd and love talking about stats and her students were very engaged – asked lots of great questions. I remember the same thing happening the last time I taught her class, but I’m always a little concerned when I start teaching about stats because many people aren’t stats-loving nerds like me, so I always fear having a room full of disinterested people staring at me. Happily, those fears were unfounded in this case.

After my guest lecture, we grabbed lunch and then Rachel continued teaching while I went off to do a 11 km run2. And then we got to spend the weekend celebrating the survival of having worked on a Saturday. Celebrating included such things as getting to see Rachel’s adorable 21-month-old son (who had been asleep by the time I’d arrived the previous night), hanging out with some other peeps who were also visiting for the weekend, lovely wine, a delicious dinner, an amazing chocolate raspberry trifle3, and a rousing game of Apples to Apples (a.k.a. Wholesome Cards Against Humanity), at which I did disastrously bad.

Today we spent a super relaxing day – had some breakfast, went to a beach in Parksville, lunch at a local pub, playing in the backyard, a walk around the neighbourhood, a delicious dinner – all of which time we got to spend catching up, which was awesome because it’s been a long time since we’d had a chance to do that.

And now I’m heading back on the ferry feeling rested and relaxed!

I gave this same type of lecture 4 years ago, but haven’t been back to do it since then as I got busy with that whole MBA thing, so I couldn’t make it over on a weekend when she was teaching as I was always in class. [↩]

Half marathon training cares not if you are having a weekend away. [↩]

Made as a Valentine’s Day dessert but happily shared with all the visitors, as Rachel mused that had she made that trifle for just her and her husband, it would have been a crazy amount of rich dessert to have! [↩]

And so the blogging streak of 2011 ends, a mere 42 days into the year. I blame BC Ferries for not having wifi on the Queen of Alberni. And then I blame the fine glass of wine that was waiting for me when I got to Rachel’s place, which put all thoughts of blogging out of my head. In conclusion: you can’t spell “wine” without” win”! Anyhoo. I’m here in Nanaimo to give a guest lecture on inferential statistics to Rachel’s research methods class. All the fun of confidence intervals, alpha levels, and, of course, why correlation is not equal to causation. Along with fewparadoxes. Anyway, that just reminded me that there was a slide I wanted to add to my slide deck, so I better get to that – my lecture starts in an hour!

In the meantime, here’s what I wrote on the ferry last night, fully intending to blog it when I got to Rachel’s:

I had grand plans to write a blog posting on the ferry tonight. I’m heading over to Nanaimo as I’m giving a guest lecture on stats in my friend’s research methods course at Vancouver Island University. And here I am on the boat – but there’s no wifi! Fail!

I’m on the 8:15 p.m. ferry, which gets me to Duke Point at 10:15, so I’m going to pretty much hit the hay as soon as I get to Rachel’s1. So nothing fancy for this blog posting, which I’m typing in Notational Velocity2 and will copy and paste to my blog once I get there, publishing it posthaste3!

Notes from the ferry ride:

Some guy told me I had “a real purty smile.” I find this amusing because I have brace! Nice try, dude.

I know they are a rip off, but I love, love, love the White Spot veggie burger combo when I’m on the ferry. Love. In fact, I wasn’t hungry *at all* before I left for the ferry, but as soon as I got on the boat I was *starving.* My brain knew that it wanted the veggie burger and tricked me into thinking I wasn’t hungry until I got here.

Another thing I love: hot chocolate made from powder and hot water. Like the stuff they have on the ferry. So tasty.

It costs me nearly twice as much to park my car for the weekend ($40) as it will for the round trip ferry ride as a foot passenger ($28). Still a lot cheaper than paying to bring my car with me though.

Oh gawd, now the guy is telling me that “you use less muscles smiling than frowning.” Seriously, is this really your A material?

And now I’m “very beautiful” and “have a very beautiful name.” Even though he doesn’t know my name. WTF?

editor’s note: That was the plan, but some wine and baked brie, and catching up from not having seen each other since *July* got in the way. We did get to bed around midnight, so it wasn’t the end of the world [↩]

N.V. is a totally awesome little notes program for Mac that I first read about over on Catherine’s blog [↩]

Yesterday was the first day of my course for this term! So exciting! Now, I know that as a general rule I don’t talk about my work here in the old blogosphere – what happens in Dr. Beth’s classroom stays in Dr. Beth’s classroom and all – but I have to say that I love teaching. I love being on campus, I love thinking about the best way to design my course to achieve the learning objectives set out for the course and the best ways to teach different concepts and skills. I love to watch students learn something and be able to apply it. I love to see them get excited about what they are learning and go above and beyond what’s required for class because they are so engaged with the material. I love to learn new things from my students – and I always learn new things from my students!

Almost completely unrelated to the above, here’s a photo of me next to an overhead projector that was in my classroom:

For the record, I do not actually use an overhead projector. I just find it amusing that we still have these things, with their rolled up supply of acetate, in our classrooms, given that it is 2010 and all. I mean, the classroom has a built in computer and projector and half the class has laptops with them.

Being the nosy person that I am, I decided to investigate who had last used this overhead. I’m sorry to tell you this, Dr. Dan, but it’s one of your brethren – a stats prof:

Even less related is this:

I always think about that commercial at the beginning of every school year and Airdrie mentioned it on Facebook today, so I couldn’t resist watching the video of it on YouTube.

How, exactly, is it the end of August? Like, seriously, people, it feels like we *just* started to get warm weather, work hasn’t slowed down one iota, and I haven’t had any summer holidays yet. WTF? And fall is *just* around the corner! I’m teaching my course at UBC again this fall1, which means I have to have everything all good to go for my first day of class, September 9. Plus I’m signed up to run the Royal Victoria Half Marathon on October 10. Unlike last year, I registered early ((by which I mean, before the race was full)! Go me!

On the plus side, hockey season starts soon too! Or should I say hockey seasons, as I’m playing on two teams this year! I’ve joined a team with some of my coworkers, in addition to my main team, which I’ve played on for the past few years. My main team plays on Sundays and my new team plays on Wednesdays or Sundays, depending on the week, so I’ll be playing all the Wed games and any of the Sun ones that don’t conflict with my main team’s games. Combine that with my half marathon training and my teaching and, well, I guess I’ll talk to y’all in December!